With the widespread use of networks, there has been disclosed a device server configured to enable a device (peripheral device), which has conventionally been used by local connection e.g. to a personal computer (PC), to be used by a client PC on a network.
For example, there have been proposed some methods for enabling a client PC on a network to use a device, such as a printer, a storage, or a scanner, as a shared device via a device server.
As one of the methods, a method has been proposed in which dedicated application software (hereinafter referred to as “the utility”) is preloaded in a client PC, and in the case of accessing a device, a user operates the preloaded utility, thereby causing the client PC to virtually recognize the device to be accessed, as a locally connected device, so that the user can access the device as if it is a locally connected device, from the client PC on a network.
In this method, which requires session (connection) start and end operations by a user, the session with a device server is occupied until the user executes a device termination operation using the utility, which disables use of the device by another client PC.
To solve the above-mentioned problem, there has been disclosed a network file management system in which a device server permits a specific client PC to perform data transmission with a device, as a data transmission occupation state, only for a time period during which block data having a data length specified by a block header is transmitted (see e.g. Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2007-317067).